Alumni
Hannah Lazarz
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Hannah's passion lies in working with under-represented, underprivileged, and often misunderstood groups of individuals, cultivating in them a sense of self worth and the ability to contribute to a community-most often through the performing arts. Inspired both by her faith and her family, Hannah's commitment to service is a fruit of the love that comes from respecting the dignity of every human being. In the words of her role model, St. Therese of Lisieux, "Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing."
Hannah was delighted to find a vibrant community of service organizations on campus and spent her freshman year finding her service "niche" at Vanderbilt. After an incredible experience serving with Alternative Spring Break on a sustainable farm in North Carolina, she joined the alternative break bandwagon and became site leader for Alternative Winter Break's service trip to New Orleans the following year. This AWB trip was one of the highlights of her Vanderbilt experience, as it allowed her to foster community among a diverse group of students through serving the homeless in New Orleans.
Perhaps the best decision of her undergraduate career was becoming an Ambassador through the Next Steps program at Vanderbilt. Formative, challenging, and fruitful, this position gave her the opportunity to interact with students with developmental disabilities not only as a source of academic support, but also as a mentor and a friend. Though Next Steps was her first experience working with individuals with disabilities, Hannah soon decided that she wanted to engage in service initiatives that involved developing relationships with special needs adults. Being a theatre major and fervent advocate of performing arts education as a solution to critical social issues, she began a volunteer internship at Backlight Productions-a nonprofit theatre in Franklin, Tennessee whose mission is to uplift and empower adults with disabilities by giving them the opportunity to produce full-length plays and musicals. The character, talent, and growth seen during rehearsals with the actors each week blow her away. This internship has been a major stepping-stone for Hannah as she explores how to best use her interest both in the performing arts, working with children, and special needs adults in her future service-oriented career.
As a junior, Hannah began a volunteer position as Research Assistant for Dr. Erik Carter of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. This research focused on developing a survey to gauge the effectiveness and understand the experiences of peer mentors in post-secondary programs like Next Steps -- a topic that is particularly relevant as Next Steps undergoes a major transition to become a 4-year residential program. This was also Hannah's first year as a Lead Ambassador for the Next Steps program, working closely with one student each semester as a liaison between the student, his or her "circle" of Ambassadors, and the Next Steps staff.
For her summer project, Hannah spent the summer in Los Angeles, California working as a full-time teaching artist with Heart of Los Angeles -- a community center in the Rampart District that empowers underserved youth through exceptional programming in athletics, academics, and art. Her project was divided into three main roles: Spoken Word teaching artist for the HOLA Music Studio students, Kodaly Choir director for the 6- to 8-year-old YOLA students, and Leadership/Team Building teaching artist for YOLA students across all age groups. Through this experience she gained a greater understanding of the power of music and creative writing in building communities and giving youth a voice that is heard.
After graduation, Hannah plans to pursue a career supporting young people who are faced with adversity either through legal child advocacy or through performing arts education. She is beyond grateful to be a part of the Ingram Scholar community, and looks forward to being challenged and inspired over this final year with the Ingram Scholarship Program.